St. Johns moms want students to go all digital

In a spare bedroom they call their war room, Kim Kendall, who sits on a state education committee, and former teacher Jill Flores are creating a plan to make schools nearly completely digital by giving a laptop or a tablet to every student in public schools.

"We need to be digital to support these courses and get our students ready for the job market," Flores said.

These two St. Johns County moms have created PAGE -- or Parents Advancing Global Education. They've studied other states' programs and come up with their own plan.

The goal: Give all 2.66 million children in Florida public schools a laptop, train every teacher and pay for it without adding extra costs to the budget. They'll give the plan to the state department of education.

Kendall said they will show "the funding options we've come up with, the different plans. We've talked to teachers, unions, principals."

Flores and Kendall estimate the state wide roll out will cost $800 - 900 million dollars. Their biggest funding source would come from tweaking the class size amendment which they say costs $3 billion to $5 billion a year.

"This is to put class size back on the ballot and loosen class size by two-to-four students with principal control," Kendall said.

A symposium last week about the PAGE proposal even had Gov. Rick Scott Skyping in to comment.

Because St. Johns County leads the state academically in so many ways, Flores and Kendall believe St. Johns County should take the lead in going completely digital at schools. The superintendent of the district is interested but he wants to know more.

"A couple things come to mind ... what is the sustainability of it and your ability to fund that for all students and then the equity. You want all students to have access," said St. Johns County schools superintendent Joseph Joyner.

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For the arts? There are so many ways this hypothetical money could be better spent. If we give every fourth grader a laptop that will mean that many more fourth graders playing minecraft when they should be reading or writing etc.

Has she decided where she lives yet? Why do we want another carpetbagger from Jacksonville, who can't get elected in the home district, moving to St. Augustine in order to advance a personal agenda in Tallahassee? Shouldn't we have someone who lives here and wants to represent the citizens of the district instead of a party plan?

St. Johns has the best school district in the state, why would she want to change that? Has Kendall consulted the school board for their opinion or has she, like her mentor and residence-confused sponsor John Thrasher, decided that their input is unnecessary?